Tag Archive: communication management unit

In the summer of 2012, a prisoner who had been repeatedly beaten with impunity by guards at Central Prison’s notorious Unit One began a lawsuit against the prison and against NC DPS.

This lawsuit soon expanded to become a class action with seven other prisoners who had had similar experiences at the same segregation unit. In particular, guards were known for taking prisoners to “the desert,” a camera-less area of the facility, to beat them. Serious injuries occurred.

Now, one of those prisoners, Stanley Corbett, Jr., has reported to us by letter that he is being retaliated against by the guards at Warren CI in Manson, NC, to which he was transferred after beginning the lawsuit.

Retaliation has included censorship of mail, denial of medical treatment, and urine in his food.

Corbett has announced that on Monday, August 25th, he will begin a hunger strike until such retaliation ends.

Supporters are encouraged to contact the NC DPS director as well as the administration at Warren CI to express their concern and anger that a prisoner is being retaliated against for exposing guards’ brutality.

We would like to let everyone know that Marius Jacob Mason will no longer be using the name Marie, and will be using male pronouns. We hope that you will all join us in supporting Marius through this transition, which will no doubt be extra challenging within the prison system. Until his name is legally changed, any mail sent to Marius in prison will still need to be addressed to ‘Marie Mason’ on the envelope. This goes for donations also. Please write to Marius at this time! Receiving supportive and friendly mail makes a world of difference. Below is a statement read out by Moira Meltzer-Cohen, one of Marius’ legal representatives, at a solidarity event organized by New York City ABC recently.

“My name is Moira Meltzer-Cohen. I’m an attorney working with a person of immense courage and integrity, someone who struggles for liberation and self-determination on behalf of other people, non-human animals, and life on Earth itself. This is someone whose courage and integrity are made even more salient by the fact that their own liberation and their own autonomy have long been severely circumscribed.

Even more than most people in prison, my client and those in their unit face rigid, arbitrary constraints on communication and expression that impact every part of their lives. But even more – I want you to imagine how difficult it would be if all your struggles toward liberation and autonomy were taking place not only in a prison, but in a world that always targets trans people for further violence, confinement, and abuse. (more…)

“This is the press release sent out by my attorneys at the Center for the Constitutional Rights regarding previously unseen documents about the Communication Management Units (CMUS) aka Lil Gitmo, run by the Bureau of Prisons. The documents reveal just what I have been saying since the day I got to the CMU in 2008-that myself and my former plaintiffs were sent there due to our political speech. A huge summary judgement motion brief was just filed and the protective order on these documents were lifted for the first time. We are asking the judge to rule on the case in our favor, with all that we have presented. The suit was first filed in April 2010 by CCR on behalf of myself and other CMU detainees. Despite my status as a released prisoner (and having been dismissed off the lawsuit by the judge for this reason), I maintain that political prisoner units are important to fight on multiple fronts. There are men in the CMU (and women at the FMC Carswell Admin Max unit) from our movements and many in need of support.” —Daniel McGowan

April 23, 2014, Washington D.C. – For the first time, hundreds of documents detailing the Bureau of Prisons’ process for designating prisoners to controversial Communications Management Units (CMUs) are public. The documents had been under a protective order in the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) lawsuit, Aref v. Holder, since CCR filed the case in 2010. (more…)